There they go again: invoking the < Reagan > ideograph

Abstract

Abstract Tracking all mentions of Ronald Reagan during presidential primary and general election debates from 1988 to 2016, we suggest that < Reagan > has emerged as a complex ideograph in contemporary political discourse. Demonstrating what we call the “personified ideograph,” this essay tracks the reverence toward Reagan that indicates the name’s status as a god term, and suggests the historic meaning of the ideograph is linked to secondary terms like “principled,” “peace through strength,” and “prosperity.” We further contend that such a calcified memory of Reagan has led to a schism in the GOP, and we describe the alternative understanding of < Reagan > as linked to such terms as “bipartisanship” and “change.”